Downtick/Negative:1) Gerris Wilkinson– It was what Dottino did NOT say. Time is running out.2) Center depth behind O’Hara

Notes:1) “5-1-5” Defense2) William Beatty is “intriguing”… “he will eventually be a starter in this league.”

Ultimatenyg comments: VERY pleased with early encouraging words from both Dottino and Schmeelk on Kehl. Kehl’s draft comments a year ago alluded to ballsmarts and leadership. Beggars can’t be choosers, so we’ll take a LBer making progress from anywhere we can get it. Kehl’s speed was never anything to get excited about. WE NEED SPEED. That was what the promise of Wilkinson was about. That was what the Boley free agent signing was all about. But make no mistake, if we can have Boley, chip-on-his-shoulder Pierce and Kehl out there playing good football together, then this will be a positive development. So much more information will come from the first few preseason games.

Just because Barden is making some very good catches in camp does not mean he will be making an impact this year. We were reminded by the Beckum comments on Monday’s post – if a rookie wants to get on the field he NEEDS to take care of his blocking assignment, not to mention getting past the jam at the line of scrimmage. So while we hope to see Barden see snaps in the red zone, we are cautious to glean too much from the practice catches themselves. In the preseason games, look for how well (quickly) Barden gets separation at the line from his defender, NOT for whether or not he makes the catch. But we’ll end this Barden note on a positive by saying that ANY comparison of a rookie to Harold Carmichael is a GREAT uptick. Good good stuff.

Separately, Q&A with Ahmad Bradshaw noted how the injury not discussed last season was his calf, which slowed him down. He was missing a gear. Wait. Let’s repeat that. He was missing a gear! Good thing we had him out there running back kickoffs instead of Hixon. $%^&*(#@! If we can see more open field speed from #44, all the better.